We
have been hearing and reading for a while about a the revolution of
communications and its scientific importance in the world. The
INTERNET is one of the means that made the universe as a small
village as reaching the north polar became faster than the eye blink.

But the semi-complete breakdown
happened in some regions all over the world last Wednesday at 8:00 am
as a result of discontinuity happened in the two nautical cables
{flag & seamwe3} that extended with 12 kilometers from Alexandria
city to the Italian city Palermo through the Mediterranean sea, made
a rehearsal for what is going to happen in case of lack of the
INTERNET!

Actually, it provoked us to wander
about questions and duties raised by those concerned in international
communications such as:

1. What
   if a terrorist attack targeted the international communications
   network?

2. Would a country or group of countries
   be separated from the international communications network?

The
accident appears to be first of its kind since the launch of the
network years ago, and whether the reason was because atmospheric
factors or a ship that cut the cables (accidentally) after being
diverted from its course of Alexandria port or the bad weather or
because possibilities illustrated by Dr. Hisham Nabieh El-Mahdy (the
communications professor in Cairo University).

What happened resulted in the
discontinuity of INTERNET and communication services besides that the
business sector, commercial projects and electronic services were
heavily inflicted on a wide range in the middle east and India, in
addition to the communication or cessation slowness by INTERNET
users.

Egypt was the most damaged as 70% of
the network was broke down and 4.4 million INTERNET users were unable
to use the service which caused cessation of work in banks,
companies, newspapers, media websites and blogging
sites. That cessation caused the halt of selling flight tickets in
the Cairo International Airport.

Many economic sectors in the Gulf were
also inflicted with partial or complete disability as millions of
financial transfers, banking services and stock market circulations
in the Gulf were jammed.

In
Bahrain, the banking transfers of sending and receiving were
completely paralyzed besides the break down happened in the credit
cards auditing because of its heavily dependence on the INTERNET.
Some ATM users outside Bahrain were not able to use the cash
withdrawals.

Slowness of INTERNET services
motivated many customers to use "banking phones service"
which caused large pressure on the services as the exchange companies
had to use the phone line after the break down to do some transfers
and transactions.

Investors in UAE faced problems made
them unable to circulate follow the assets prices through the
INTERNET that the circulation volume decreased in Dubai financial
market. However, issuance of electronic tickets and its confirmation
were delayed.

Losses happened in the Arabian region
estimated in billions of dollars because many of academic, banking
and journalist institutions are dealing with the INTERNET.

In
New Delhi, the information capacity decreased with a range of 50% –
60% as communication centers and information technology companies
were heavily inflicted, besides that INTERNET Café had to shut
down.

That discontinuity caused the telecoms
officials to immediately use the alternative paths which created some
kind of hot stock market that provided a rivalry, as these paths
prices arouse in an exceptional way.

The Egyptian minister of
telecommunication and information technology Dr.Tarek Kamel formed an
operation room to overcome this partial discontinuity in
communication service by using alternative paths or through
satellites.

Despite of what happened, definitely
we became a part of the world which is affecting us as well as we are
affecting it that if that without that bond, we would be out of
history. But what really happened, provoked some to call for
establishing an alternative Arab network instead of the international
INTERNET network.

What happened has to stimulate us to:

1. The
   adherence to competent cooperation between countries that our human
   achievements have to serve the man not to use him.

2. Our
   scientific achievements have not to be a mean of backwardness.

3. Standing
   firmly against the terrorist threats.

4. Depending on many alternatives that
   ensures communication and global linkage.